CS wants me to do INCREDIBLY BASIC Scratch 1.4 (not even the new web one) instead of learning Rust.

It's second-year CS (UK), but seriously?

What uni are you at? Was at UoB (UK) a few years ago, second years were given the option of c++ (not rust, granted, but c++ is more employable). They also learned java through year 1 and 2.

@alwaysmpe high school second year
i'm 13
learning rust as small project

If you're 13 that's pretty good. Closest thing to programming I did when I was 13 was excel (seriously, that was a course). The option to do it in schools is new and there's a serious lack of skills in the teaching staff. Over time it'll get better. There's a very good chance you're a better programmer than your teacher because there's a good chance this is their second year of programming too!

My advice, keep learning in your spare time and you'll be shit hot by the time you get a job doing it.